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25 February 2014

Tombstone Tuesday: Ira Wilson

My uncle Ira, my mother's brother, was born in New York City and lived his entire life in Brooklyn. Ira was the first of two children born to Joseph Wilson and Tillie Liebross Wilson.

Photo by E. Garber, 2 September 2008

Here lies

Died 28 Tevet 5764

IRA HOWARD WILSON

BELOVED HUSBAND, FATHER

AND GRANDFATHER

MAY 19, 1918 - JAN. 22, 2004

Ira and his parents were enumerated during the 1920 U.S. Census living in an apartment at 1654 Union Street, Brooklyn. [1] By the 1925 New York State Census, they are living in a two family home at 723 Crown Street. [2] On the 15 July 1929, when Ira was 11, Joe and Tillie purchased their home at 31 Colin Place, Brooklyn.

By today's standards, 31 Colin Place was small for a family of four. There were two bedrooms in the back of the house. One was a master bedroom for Joe and Tillie. The other bedroom was ultimately used only by my mother. A sun room at the front of the house was converted to a bedroom for Ira.

Ira graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn and attended New York University both for his undergraduate degree and for Law School. He passed the State Bar Examination on 14 May 1942. [4] He clerked for a time, but later gave up lawyering to go into the women's sweater business with his father.

Ira was an accomplished horseman. My mother used to proudly tell us that her brother would do dressage(highest level of competitive horse training). It was while working at a resort teaching horseback riding, that Ira met Lee Urbass whom he later married.

Lee and Ira had one child, Steven, and lived for many years on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn.

Ira is buried in the Wilson-Garber Family plot in Knollwood Cemetery (now a part of Mount Carmel Cemetery), Queens, New York. Section 5, Block H, Lot 35, Grave 1.

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